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Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Hey everybody! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas spent with family and friends.

I spent lots of time working on my new "studio" which is in the back of our new shop that we are currently designing. It's so nice to have a warm place to make my bread boards now instead of using the gravel carport behind our house. I know this is nothing that exciting but I wanted to show you how it looked before I worked on it.

In a word, gross. This place use to be a taxidermy business so there was all kinds of this and that splattered on the walls and floor. I'm not sure what it was and I really don't want to know either, I'm just happy it's gone now. First thing I did was pull up the floor.

Then I replaced it with parquet wood floor tiles. Next, the ick splattered cabinets had to go. I gave them a good cleaning and coat or two of Kilz, then, another three coats of Valspar Ultra White paint in semi gloss. I'm thinking about adding knobs, just not sure what kind yet. Then I sanded down the wood countertop and put a coat of Minwax Special Walnut stain. The doors also received a coat of ultra white and the walls are painted with
Elmira White by Benjamin Moore.

I still need to add a few more things and install baseboards at some point.

Here's what it looks like now.

I also brought in some personal things to make it feel homey. I know it's just a workshop but I really believe in surrounding yourself with things that make you happy, especially when working. I also brought in this stainless steel table which is so perfect for working on. The stool was left behind so I cleaned it and recovered it with an old coffee bean sack.

I am so happy with the entire room and it really inspired hubby to get to work in the other rooms.

One really special thing I wanted to share about this place is that it's right across the street from my dad's old office before he passed away. I just think that's pretty cool since this all happened because of my bread boards, which were inspired by my dad. That makes me smile and I know he's smiling, too.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Hey there everybody! Is anyone else slightly overwhelmed by the fact that it's almost Christmas? I'm sure hoping that some of you are as behind as I am? I always have such great plans to make everyone's gifts, bake cookies with my kiddos, spend time planning teacher appreciation gifts, buy presents, etc., but by this time every December, I've done none of that and I rush to get it all done at the last minute, forgetting what Christmas is about in the first place. Shame on me.

Somehow I found the time to work on the vintage industrial railroad cart that hubby brought home. We were so blessed to receive 3 of them as a gift from one of my biggest bread board suppporters. He gave us three of them and I just couldn't wait to get to work on one of them. Luckily, it didn't really need much work. I just cleaned it, sanded it, coated it with Minwax special walnut stain and polyurethaned the top and hardware. Then we brought it inside to use as a coffee table in our living room. I have always wanted one of these ever since seeing the ridiculously high priced one at Restoration Hardware. Here's how it looks in it's new home.

We are so excited about this piece and will cherish it forever because it was given to us.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Hi everybody! It's the middle of the week, I've got tons of work to do working on our new shop and bread boards so this will be short and sweet. I hope everyone is having a great week so far.

We don't have a fireplace, though I sure wish we did, so I use this ledge that I built for our mantel. I always try to keep it simple when decorating it for the holidays.

Just some simple greenery that I clipped from some trees in the woods, bright white candles, some silver candle holders for a little sparkle and I added these vintage spools for some warmth and because they look a little like candle holders.

Monday, December 5, 2011

Hey there! I worked on our table decor this morning and as usual, I kept it pretty simple.

For the table, I used vintage Christmas sheet music for placemats. Then placed my favorite white plates on top, along with my newest set of mini bread boards. On top of those, I added the gorgeous vintage silver that my hubby brought home to me. And simple white napkins complete the look.

I added some greenery into the hurricanes that were already on the table to add a little "festiveness",
is that a word?

I found this wonderful vintage dough trencher on Etsy last week and snatched it up to add to my collection. I filled it with gorgeous pomegranates. Simple, natural and pretty.

For above the pocket door, I simply went into the woods and clipped some greenery off some cypress and cedar trees and stapled it to the wall. Free.

I bought one of those inexpensive faux green wreaths and added burlap strips to it that I cut from some of our coffee sacks, then hung it from our built in corner cabinet that holds my collection of transferware. I also hung a glass berry garland from our light above the table.

For our buffet, I bought a mini Christmas tree and put it into a bushel basket wrapped with burlap and rope. Then brought out my special vintage wine decanter with etched glass wine goblets that my hubby bought for me for our anniversary one year.

To add some festiveness to the dining chairs, I tied strips of canvas to little berry wreaths that I made from glass berry garland, and hung them on the backs of the chairs.

And that's pretty much it. Nothing fancy, just simple and inexpensive, but still pretty, cozy and warm for the holidays. That in itself is beautiful to me.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Hey everyone! We wanted to share some exciting news with you as this probably wouldn't have seemed possible without all of you wonderful readers.

If you read our blog regularly, you all know what an amazing "picker" my hubby is. In fact, he has a storage building bursting at the seams full of his finds from over time. And you also know my love for transforming his finds into something unique and special, as well as my love for designing and building furniture along with my bread boards.

Because of the unbelievable success of those bread boards and his amazing picking skills, we have decided to go for our dreams and open a new business right here on Main Street. And all of his finds and my creations, will be available there!

We signed the papers yesterday and get to start fixing up this cute little shop today! We can't wait to get started. We're hoping that in the next few months, we'll have everything ready. It has so much potential and of course, I'll be blogging about it along the way. We're doing everything ourselves so hopefully, we won't run into too many road blocks.

My hubby will be able to do something he has always dreamed about and I will finally have a place in the back, indoors, to work on my bread boards and furniture pieces. With it beginning to get cold, our gravel carport "studio" just wasn't cutting it. And I won't be annoying our neighbors anymore with noisy power tools. :) Actually, we have the most supportive neighbors EVER.

So, that's the big news, and we are pretty darn excited. This would not even have been something we would have dared consider if it wasn't for all of YOU and your encouragement along the way. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your support! We are so grateful.

"We have such profound power when we lend an ear, a hand, or an act of kindness because it reminds the recipient that people are good. People do care. That’s what gives life meaning: the people who touch our lives, and the people whose lives we touch."